A night to remember
Well, Valentine's 2009 was certainly a packed evening for Europhiles, with five national finals taking place across the continent. All of these songs are now present and correct in our 'Story so far' video bar.
My overall feeling at this new crop of songs for Moscow is a healthy level of delight. The ballads from Iceland and Poland are very polished in production and may muddy the waters a little bit for the likes of Chiara and Jade. From last night's two, I see Iceland as the stronger as the Polish contestant doesn't really have the voice to deliver her song convincingly. Nonetheless, this is an improvement in songwriting from last year's For life (sorry Isis). The third ballad of the evening came from Lithuania and Sasha Son. This sits nicely out of time, the way Eurovision should be, and I applaud them for this consistently dated follow-up to Nomads in the night. The song will surely not impact on the leaderboard come May, but Sasha is a confident performer and if it were to be presented in English it may be a little more of a vote-winner.
True amazement and wonder, however, should be reserved for Moldova and Armenia, who also added their representatives to the heady mix last night. Moldova has gone turbo-folk and it's just a good old romp with frenetic brass band accompaniment and some crazy dancing - think last year's interval act with a slimline Chiara (everything's relative) on vocals. The live performance is worth seeing, but the YouTube clip available isn't quite high enough in quality for us to post up here. Finally, Armenia. Oh, lovely Armenia what gave us Qele, qele in 2008, and will surely come in the top 6 at Eurovision for all time no matter whether they send something decent or an overweight young man squirting fake blood over his shirt. This year, however, something magical, nay miraculous, has happened. Somewhere in Armenia - I like to imagine an underground bunker in a forest - scientists have managed to take the Mullan sisters (Ireland 1999) and our darling, darling Fabienne (Eurosong 1988) AND MAKE THEM ONE. Or rather two, as there are two of them - Inga and Anush.
Inga and Anush are sensational. When interviewed they actually seem like nice, softly spoken girls. In performance, they will scare the bejeesis out of you. New dance doesn't fit easily into any one musical category. There are strong folk influences and a rather simple main mid-tempo theme sung in English. However, this is interspersed with some extrordinary interludes of rhythmic uncertainty and vocal acrobatics, plus some good old-fashioned shouting in each other's face. People spin around like tops while I&A stalk the stage in black lace. It's an assault on the senses. Mystifying, terrifying, strangely uplifting. I'd say top 5 or bottom 5 in Moscow - this ain't no mid-table wallflower.
Readers, I think we have a vintage year on our hands.
My overall feeling at this new crop of songs for Moscow is a healthy level of delight. The ballads from Iceland and Poland are very polished in production and may muddy the waters a little bit for the likes of Chiara and Jade. From last night's two, I see Iceland as the stronger as the Polish contestant doesn't really have the voice to deliver her song convincingly. Nonetheless, this is an improvement in songwriting from last year's For life (sorry Isis). The third ballad of the evening came from Lithuania and Sasha Son. This sits nicely out of time, the way Eurovision should be, and I applaud them for this consistently dated follow-up to Nomads in the night. The song will surely not impact on the leaderboard come May, but Sasha is a confident performer and if it were to be presented in English it may be a little more of a vote-winner.
True amazement and wonder, however, should be reserved for Moldova and Armenia, who also added their representatives to the heady mix last night. Moldova has gone turbo-folk and it's just a good old romp with frenetic brass band accompaniment and some crazy dancing - think last year's interval act with a slimline Chiara (everything's relative) on vocals. The live performance is worth seeing, but the YouTube clip available isn't quite high enough in quality for us to post up here. Finally, Armenia. Oh, lovely Armenia what gave us Qele, qele in 2008, and will surely come in the top 6 at Eurovision for all time no matter whether they send something decent or an overweight young man squirting fake blood over his shirt. This year, however, something magical, nay miraculous, has happened. Somewhere in Armenia - I like to imagine an underground bunker in a forest - scientists have managed to take the Mullan sisters (Ireland 1999) and our darling, darling Fabienne (Eurosong 1988) AND MAKE THEM ONE. Or rather two, as there are two of them - Inga and Anush.
Inga and Anush are sensational. When interviewed they actually seem like nice, softly spoken girls. In performance, they will scare the bejeesis out of you. New dance doesn't fit easily into any one musical category. There are strong folk influences and a rather simple main mid-tempo theme sung in English. However, this is interspersed with some extrordinary interludes of rhythmic uncertainty and vocal acrobatics, plus some good old-fashioned shouting in each other's face. People spin around like tops while I&A stalk the stage in black lace. It's an assault on the senses. Mystifying, terrifying, strangely uplifting. I'd say top 5 or bottom 5 in Moscow - this ain't no mid-table wallflower.
Readers, I think we have a vintage year on our hands.
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